!RE: Service Call Reimbursement [RE-wrenches]

Thu Jan 5 08:59:50 PST 2006

Hi all,

This thread is about the reasonable desire for working people to be
compensated for their time and effort when they are called upon to repair
or replace a manufacturers equipment. Just for the record I totally support
the notion that manufacturers should compensate installers for return
visits if equipment if the manufacturer deems the equipment requires
upgrading, repair or replacement (providing product failure is not caused
by installation or environmental issues). 

An important part of our industry maturing is having the manufacturers who
provide the technology being able to stand behind their products. There
have been a number of expamples of companies doing the right thing in past
years. Trace started it all off by reimbursing installers for their
all-to-frequent calls to SunTie sites. If I recall correctly other inverter
manufacturers Xantrex and Fronius have service call policies. Last year
UniRac did an excellent job of reaching out to installers on a product
issue and they also arranged to pay a fee for the necessary service call.

These are but a few examples of our industry growing up but there is
another important side to this matter. If we truly expect our manufacturers
to cover the costs of service calls - especially off grid ones which
involve hours of travel - we must expect to pay more for the products they
sell us. At present most manufacturers include cost of warranty
replacements into the price of the equipment and they figure on a certain
percentage of failure. If we want them to include time and materials along
with the cost of the equipment into their calculations we must expect to
pay more for the equipment.

I believe that most of us don't want to pay more for equipment, especially
since we choose the products we sell on the basis of reliability and don't
expect a high degree of failure. So I propose a alternative scenario:

We certainly should expect all manufacturers to pay some reasonable amount
for service calls necessitated by their materials or workmanship but we
should also expect our customers to bear some of the risk and cost of
service. This is most important off grid but also holds true in grid tie
situations.

Installers should advice their clients the limit and extend of the warranty
and that it doesn't cover the cost of the installers time. They should be
then offered a choice of taking the risk of paying the installers time if
necessary or buying a service agreement. Serivce agreements are very common
in other industries similar to ours and have proven to be profit centers
for many businesses. 

Having said that I'd like to step back and look as some other industries
and their examples of service. When I bought an expensive gas stove and
lugged it all the way to our darned island only to find it had a non
operable burner I was offered a box of parts but no service call. When my
internet satellite dish required re-aiming (due the service providers'
changes) I had to pay for the service call, and spend many a long hour on
the phone getting a credit from the provider. 

When I compare our industry to others I am glad to see that we are
demanding higher than usual standards for our customers, it bodes well for
the future of solar.

Best regards,

Ezra Auerbach

DragonSun Consulting
Marketing Services to the Renewable Energy Industry

ezra at lasqueti.net
250 333 8650

----- Original Message -----
From: Barbra Kerr <bkerr at energy-exchange.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 4:56:27 PM
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Subject: !RE: Service Call Reimbursement [RE-wrenches]

> 
> Fellow Wrenches -
> 
> Please know that we have rather strong feelings in support of
manufacturer's
> reimbursing installers for service calls.  We became especially sensitive
to
> it after the Trace Inverter failures some years back.
> 
> Some of our losses over the last two years:
> 
> In '04 we spent over $2,600 running down and resetting/replacing chips for
> EEprom errors.
> 
> In '04 we spent over $11,000 replacing circuit boards for a module
> manufacturer's monitoring system.  The manufacturer agreed to only
reimburse
> us 50%.  With that we refused to sell, install, or service anymore of the
> monitoring systems.
> 
> In '05 we spent more than $2,600 having replaced 32+ chips (EEprom).  Some
> were the ones we replaced the year before.
> 
> In early '05 we replaced 2 bad modules (which were shipped back) with our
> own stock and still have not been reimbursed by the module manufacturer.  
> 
> In an emerging industry, one would expect to "roll with it, giving and
> taking as necessary" as the industry got its bearings, started to
understand
> the market, and worked out some basic distribution and quality control
> issues.  One would also assume, while going through this process, policies
> and procedures would be established to protect and nurture the "industry",
> not just the manufacturer.  Many of us have not seen this.
> 
> It is very disheartening to know that the installers are a vital key in
the
> efficient growth of this industry, the client's primary experience with
this
> emerging technology, and we hold the greatest risk and the shallowest
> pockets, but don't seem to be compensated across the board by all
> manufacturers.
> 
> During the last three years in this industry, there has been a significant
> shift away from a team building philosophy at the manufacturer through
> installer level to a more depersonalized, everyone for themselves at the
> manufacturer level.  The manufacturers' creating their own association
was a
> surprise to me at this early date as somehow I still felt there is far too
> much work left to do in bringing PV into a sustainable industry in this
> country.  
> 
> Depending on the hardware, manufacturers provide warranties 5-25 years
long.
> In my humble opinion, this issue speaks more to the manufacturer's
> integrity, sense of responsibility regarding the performance of their
> product, and their commitment to customer service.  Over the long-term,
this
> issue is one of customer service, and the current policy of not
compensating
> for service calls will only serve to hurt the industry and those
> manufacturers that believe they can extract free service calls from
factory
> trained installers.  We have paid the manufacturer already for the
privilege
> to sell and install their products - I guess we now have to pay for the
> privilege to service them as well!
> 
> Allan, Jay - put me on your list of signatures to the appropriate
> manufacturers!
> 
> Barbra K. Kerr
> President
> Kerr Enterprises, Inc
> PO Box 1992
> Twain Harte, Ca 95383
> 1-800-886-2258
> 209-586-9607 Fax
> 858-337-5097 Cell
> 
> 
> - - - -
> To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> 
> Archive of previous messages:
http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read
> 
> List rules & how to change your email address:
www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php
> 
> Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/
> 
> Hosted by Home Power magazine
> 
> Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
> 
> 

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read

List rules & how to change your email address: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit:
http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER
--^----------------------------------------------------------------